18
	Stories of 2x-.SlaveS: Isiah Tefferiee	Page 2


	flit was spring arid I started in chopping cotton. ‘Peers

dat I got on pretty well, arid. dat de overseer liked me from de start. Prom dar on I was broke Into field work of all kinds arid den

I did work around de lot as well. ~It was not long befo‘ everybody started cal1in~ me “uncle Zery‘~ why ~- 1 did not know; but anyway dat name still sticks to me by dem dat knows me well. iviy grandpa neveï called. me dat, kaise I was named atter him, and he too proud 0±‘ dat fact to call me any nickname. I stayed vvid him at his house lots atter I started working fer de marster, kaise he showed me how to do things. I worked fer him to ~it my first money and he would give nie a quarter fer a whole day‘s work. Dat made me feel good and I thdught I was a man kaise I made a quarter. In dem days a quarter was a lot o~ money. I spent it fer chawing tobacco, and dat made me sick at first. ~Dats all men had to spend money fer in

	dem days. EverythIng was give you on de plantation and you did not T needniuch money. Sometimes we cooked out in de field and I have

	cooked bread in de:field in a lid.

	“Ma teached me how to cook beTh‘ I was twelve years old. Wejiad good thin~s to eat den; more dan my chilluns has dese times. AIlde slaveshad deregardens on mymarster‘s plantation. He made derndo it, and dey liked it. Nig~ers do not seem to take no pains wid gardens now. Land~aintt soft and mellow like it used to be. -In

cold weather we had to batik out ‘taters, rutabegas, beets, carrots arid pumpkins. De pumpkins and carrots was fer de hogs and cows.

	“In warm weather we had cottönclothes and in cold weather we had woolen c‘othes dat o~r marster had made fer us by de old ladies on de plantation. But we did go barefooted all winter until

we was gr~wn and married. We had all d.e wood we wanted fer fire.


~ ~